I am still slowly plugging away at this and made it to Chapter 5 last night. On the bright side, I've gotten used to the controls and action so the big shootout missions haven't been too difficult, and the set up of the missions means I can pick up the game and do 1 or 2 at a time without getting burnt out. And I'm appreciating the world as I go about it more then I did initially, although still not bothering much with hunting and other crafting while just concentrating on main story and side missions. But still not exactly enthralled with the game overall as far as GOTY type material.

I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm not going to finish this one, and I can now start to listen to my GOTY podcasts without worrying about spoilers. I'm perfectly fine watching the endings on YouTube.

Finally finished this one. I will say that this is one exhausting game and that the game is ridiculously huge. I'm not joking when I say that you could probably play this for a year straight and still have more to play if you spend your time hunting, fishing, riding, doing side quests etc. I never even found the serial killer clues, the dinosaur bones the ghost train, and some other things on my own in my first play through. I thought the missions were great, but the epilogue parts where you play as John leading into Red Dead 1 were kind of hit and miss.

Is it still an enjoyable experience to play the game and just stick to story missions for the majority of the game? I would like to dig in soon, but I know I won't have time to do much side stuff if I ever want to finish.

Yes. Honestly I think the game flows better if you just do the story missions one after another in terms of the story and seeing Arthur and Dutch's relationship slowly dissolving.

I know I'm the minority but I ended up putting this down. I tried to use this approach but the result was me spending more time on a horse traveling than actually doing missions. It wasn't enough to hold my interest. I think I left it at around 30% story completion.

I don't think i'd have missed anything if I just ignored most of the side missions. Some of them result in some humorous situations and side characters, but nothing particularly amazing and really just seem to be there for a reason to explore more of the world. The money/rewards aren't even significant.

None of the side missions for me equaled the power of the main missions...some are well done though..

Honestly, I will never play a game this long again. That's it for me. The story became so uninteresting and completely boring due to the length. I kept waiting for the Benny Hill show theme song to play because of how horrible a leader Dutch was. But yeah, it's still a great technical accomplishment no matter what.

You made it farther than I did before shelving this one.

After shelling out full fuckin price after enjoying GTA games and seeing the reviews, I felt obligated to stick with it as far as I could. lol

I thought the later side missions were better, they helped flesh out the "redemption" aspects to the story more than the main plot.

I can't seem to be able to tell what's a main mission and what's a side mission.

Yeah, i'm noticing that now towards the end of Chapter 5.



Yellow dot versus grey/white dot?

I’m surprised by the number of people who bailed. I know the game has is flaws, but still.
I think I’ll probably start my 3rd playthrough next week. Right now I’m trying to track down some birds and Dino bones.

So I decided to play the first red dead over the weekend as it's one of my all time favs and I remember it looking really good on the Xone - wow, can't believe how much better RD2 looks.I still think the first looks really great (especially for when it was released) but I was just really taken back.

I agree.

Also, the epilogue is one of the most boring things I've ever played. I'm still not done and it's killing me. Putting up fence posts? SERIOUSLY?

How can you not enjoy a rhythm mini-game while constructing a house!

Yeah I was not a fan of that, but personally I think the final mission is worth it, and from a narrative perspective I can understand what they were attempting to go for.

After listening to a bunch of game of the year podcasts that have spoiled just about every story beat in this game, I'm honestly more inclined to jump back into this now than I was a few weeks ago. I still want to see how it plays out for myself .

Probably won't though .

The last time I played this game was back in early December and have not had the urge to play this again. I had 2 weeks off during the holidays and played everything else but this game. I didn't have to do that for the first game.

I want to get back to playing it, mostly because it's so well-made and interesting, but it's such a fucking CHORE to play, that after a tough day at work, I'd just rather pop in something far less arduous.

My sentiments exactly.

I honestly didn't have a problem with the epilogue stuff but only because I love detail like that - no matter how goofy it is, I just like the little stuff but I can see how a lot of people would be irritated by it.

For sure, this is becoming a big problem with their games. They preach realism but then their online modes feature futuristic racing in the clouds, werewolf's, etc....